Different Effects of Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance on Attention to Changing Facial Expressions

Attachment orientation has been reported to influence visual attention and cognitive decisions regarding facial expressions. However, previous studies have reported mixed results regarding the effects of attachment orientation. This study aims to examine how attachment anxiety and avoidance affect judgment and attention allocation during free viewing of dynamic facial expressions. Although we did not find any association between attachment orientation and the reaction time to judge the timings of changes in facial expressions, the relationship between attachment orientation and attention was found. When viewing the appearance of anger, attachment avoidance had a positive relationship and attachment anxiety had a negative relationship with looking time to the eye area. When the eye-tracking data were divided into 12 consecutive intervals of 1 s each, the attachment orientation had different relationships with visual attention based on the type of emotion presented. We discuss possible explanations for these results and directions for further research in cross-cultural contexts.